Tabla de contenidos para Issue 4, 2022 en Golf Digest

COLUMNS ARE LIKE MESSAGES in a bottle tossed out to sea. I’m thinking of that churning ocean beside the seventh hole at Pebble Beach. Jimmy Demaret used to say the nearest drop was “Honolulu.” Every once in a while, a bottle miraculously floats back home. I got one this month after 28 years. The original column was published in March 1994 right after the birth of my first daughter, Sam, reflecting on “How to Be a Golfing Father.” The response came in an email from reader Jack Ringwood, who said he had torn out the column and “it has been sitting in the top drawer of my desk at work all that time, and I have re-read it and mentioned it in conversation many, many times over the years. Like…

I GREW UP IN AUSTRALIA, AND BECAUSE OF THE wide variety of courses and climates across the country, I learned how to play good golf in many different conditions. I think that’s why having a consistent, natural tempo to my swings became a big thing of mine. It’s easy to let things get pear-shaped when you’re playing in a different environment than you’re used to. Sometimes it’s not even the golf course or the weather. It could be the weight of the moment—a big match or the last few holes of a tournament—that throws you off your game. It’s those times when getting back to swinging with good tempo matters most. It’s hard to explain what good tempo is, but here in my backyard, I’m going to do my best…

During its formative years, The Country Club expanded from six to nine to 18 holes. By the early 1900s, the golf course had taken the form, with only minor changes, of today’s Main Course, ranked 17th on our list of America’s 100 Greatest Courses and the layout members typically play. In 1927, the club opened a third nine, Primrose, designed by William Flynn, giving The Country Club three nines and the flexibility to use the strongest combination of holes when major tournaments come to Brookline. The original layout played in 1913 was different than in tournaments played after 1957 when several Primrose holes were included. This year the club debuts, for the first time in a major, a new Open Course arrangement and sequencing of holes. BENCHED (RED) The par-4…

Some of the amateur golfers I play with are happy just to hit the ball in the general direction of their target. But when you become skilled enough to start shaping shots based on the situation, the one you have to learn is the high fade. It’s really reliable for holding greens—especially from longer distances, which is where I use it a lot. I’m going to give you some tips for how to produce this ball flight, whether you’re swinging a middle or long iron, a hybrid or a fairway wood. You’re going to love how it launches high and lands soft. Prepare to launch • There is more than one way to execute this shot, but for me, two keys happen at address. I play the ball farther forward…

IT’S TRUE THAT THERE ARE many different backswings at the tour-pro level, but the one common denominator is that no one is doing anything that hurts his or her chance of hitting a solid shot. Many amateurs get their swing off to a poor start and have to make mid-swing adjustments so that they can make reasonable contact with the golf ball. It’s a recipe for inconsistency. We get a ton of sunshine where I teach in Southern California, so one of my go-to drills is using your shadow to train for a better backswing. Before we get to that, here’s a simple way you can groove a better takeaway and make those first few feet of your swing more valuable. Grab an iron in your lead hand while placing…

IF YOU STRUGGLE to execute wedge shots that require less than a full swing, chances are you need to work on better “low-point control,” meaning where the club bottoms out. The club should strike the ball before it makes contact with the turf. Unfortunately, if you’re not maintaining the radius to your swing arc, the wedge likely will strike the ground first and you’ll chunk the shot, or you’ll catch the ball on the upswing with the leading edge and thin it. The longer you’re able to keep the clubhead traveling in a circle equidistant from your sternum, the easier it is to control the low point of the swing. When you keep the radius the same, you also expose the club’s trailing edge to the ground through impact. That…

ON THURSDAY OF THE Masters this spring, I experienced a flashback to a time that connects powerfully to the upcoming U.S. Open at The Country Club, the storied course in the Boston suburb of Brookline, Mass. I had dropped into Butler Cabin for rehearsals of ESPN’s early-round coverage, and there, seated a few feet apart, were Curtis Strange and Nick Faldo, two great champions who today direct their laser focus on excellent commentary to the Masters and other important TV golf productions. Seeing them together, my mind flashed back to the 1988 U.S. Open at The Country Club and the classic 18-hole playoff duel in which Curtis prevailed but put on display the com-petitive intensity of the two World Golf Hall of Famers: a Yank and a Brit, yet so…

THE HOURS LEADING UP TO SUNDAY afternoon at the Masters can be stressful if you’re in the final pairing, but Cameron Smith’s only worry was forgetting to take home to Palm Valley, Fla., a six-pack of his favorite Australian beer. It’s a lite lager called XXXX Gold, and a friend from Down Under visiting Augusta, Ga., had brought it over. Smith packed the beers inside a cooler of ice and left it at the front door of his rented house, ensuring he couldn’t leave without seeing them. It was an unusual way to spend the morning before the biggest round of his life, during which he contended but ultimately finished T-3. (Masters winner Scottie Scheffler confessed he had cried with anxiety before the round.) Smith, 28, has no regrets. The…

A teary-eyed Ben Crenshaw knelt and kissed the grass on The Country Club’s 17th green. A long birdie putt by Jose Maria Olazabal had just missed wide left giving the hole to Justin Leonard and clinching the half point the 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup team needed to seal a most improbable come-from-behind victory. All around him fans screamed and players celebrated, but the team captain was at peace. “That’s because I knew what it meant,” Crenshaw said. “I knew the history.” He was referring to the 17th hole, where sudden swings of fate always seem to occur. The short, 370-yard par 4 had been pivotal in three previous U.S. Opens played at the Brookline, Mass., club, and now it was the scene of another moment for the ages, the home…

I’m a travel freak and a golf freak, so in 1990, I had this idea to combine them for Sports Illustrated. I told them I’d like to go play the 18 most unforgettable holes in the world. Not just that, I’d play them in order—the most unforgettable first hole, the most unforgettable second, etc., and by the end, I’d have a score for playing the whole unforgettable enchilada. ▸ Get this: They let me. ▸ I went around the world in three weeks, doing nothing but playing golf. Starting in Denver and—note to Flat Earthers—always flying east, I went to New York, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Dubai, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, Hawaii, Los Angeles and back to Denver. At every stop, they couldn’t wait to show me the hole they…

Wicked lettuce U.S. Open rough Big dig A big cut out of a bunker The Departed Players who miss the cut Boston Tea Party A ruling involving two or more caddies, officials or players Tom Brady Local guy, member here, NBD The Green Monster The 625-yard, par-5 14th Keh-tussy cah Courtesy car A Paul Revere Any late charge on Sunday Storrow Drive Striped tee shot…